Will we leave behind Fossils?

[Crossroads Inc.]

It takes Thousands and thousands of years for fossils to form and requires a body to be left undisturbed the entire time. Further less then 1% of all animals (during the dinosaurs) actually ever became fossils. With this in mind, given today’s worlds where construction, soil movement and modern burial practices, is there a chance that We, are indeed any modern animals will be left to fossilize as they have eons ago?

[Superman]

It takes Thousands and thousands of years for fossils to form and requires a body to be left undisturbed the entire time. Further less then 1% of all animals (during the dinosaurs) actually ever became fossils. With this in mind, given today’s worlds where construction, soil movement and modern burial practices, is there a chance that We, are indeed any modern animals will be left to fossilize as they have eons ago?

Sure, but we basically have to die in mud and remain relatively undisturbed for thousands of years. Do that, and you'll be a fossil.

[Maraxus]

Probably. When people like the Anasazi abandoned the Chaco Canyon area, they left behind giant piles of domestic garbage, called Middens. In addition, bones were left over from villages attacked by Anasazi, and were mostly undisturbed. When human extinction comes about, there will probably be large areas of largely abandoned land. Should an environmental collapse occur, there will be large amounts of garbage and bones left over. These might be the fossils we find.

[Superman]

Probably. When people like the Anasazi abandoned the Chaco Canyon area, they left behind giant piles of domestic garbage, called Middens. In addition, bones were left over from villages attacked by Anasazi, and were mostly undisturbed. When human extinction comes about, there will probably be large areas of largely abandoned land. Should an environmental collapse occur, there will be large amounts of garbage and bones left over. These might be the fossils we find.

The bones you mentioned are not fossils; they're human remains from what is now an archaeological site.

[Ryushikaze]

Fossils, unlikely but possible. Preserved remains, yes. Bog deaths and the like happen all the time.

Though we may leave some fossilized remains in the form of corpses in the now closed off mines of the 1800s.

[Darth Raptor]

Are you kidding? I'd be willing to wager that humans will leave more fossilized skeletons than any other species of animal ever. But why would our descendents/alien archeologists of the distant future have any interest in fossils when there will be so many other better preserved remains?

[RedImperator]

Fossils are created when the remains of an animal are buried before scavengers and the weather can destroy them.

Humans all over the world, for thousands of years, have been burying the remains of their dead before scavengers and the weather can destroy them.

Hmm...

[Pick]

Of course we'll leave fossils. Lots, I'm sure. We're talking about an animal heavily populated across the globe. The conditions will be right one place or another, and we've got more than enough attempts to get some nice examples.

[Patrick Degan]

We already are. Talk to the people of Pompeii about it. I think you can find them in a museum somewhere.

[wolveraptor]

We already are. Talk to the people of Pompeii about it. I think you can find them in a museum somewhere.

Are they really fossilized, or just well preserved?

[Maraxus]

Neither. Apparently, when Vesuvius erupted it covered Pompeii in a layer of more or less liquid ash. This ash suffocated the people underneath it, and their bodies "turned to dust" after a while. However, the ash hardened around them and this caused cavities to form. Plaster, and later apoxy resin, is injected into these cavities and these form the statues you see today.

[Cyborg Stan]

Fossils consist of not only mineralized remains, but also imprints. (Which is why there can be fossil footprints.) In this case, the victims of Pompeii would be an odd case of the latter.

[wolveraptor]

I was referring specifically to the skeletal remains (yes, there were some, specifically at Herculaneum, a nearby city).

[Lord Woodlouse]

I think our sapience means it's far less likely for a human to be stuck in fossil conditions than most other animals. If a human gets stuck in mud they'll get pulled back out, even (especially) if they are injured. Most burials are not fossil conditions, from what I gather.

It's not too relavent though, our imprint on the Earth and our preserved remains through other means will mean there's no doubt for those sentient tree lupins of the future about a race called man that once walked the Earth.

[Elheru Aran]

I was referring specifically to the skeletal remains (yes, there were some, specifically at Herculaneum, a nearby city).

Those don't qualify as they're still bone. Technically, a 'fossil' is remains that have become stone over the years, IIRC. It takes a *very* long time for such to form... the earliest human remains qualify, but after that point, they're better referred to as 'remains', not 'fossils'.

[Enola Straight]

An early hominid left footprints in freshly fallen ash from a volcanic eruption millions of years ago; the ash turned to stone, leaving a fossilized footprint. (from a National Geographic issue from the 80s).

Must the fossil medium be natural...not artificial?

Perhaps we can include, as fossils, the many hand- and footprints left in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

[Sam Or I]

I have always wondered about the non natural stuff. Can a tire, milk carton, or any other inon-living object be fossilised over billions of years? Imagine finding a fossil of a car or house (Which in theory if made of wood, it could become a fossil). Furniture anyone?


We bury our dead. Yes there will be fossils

[Pablo Sanchez]

I have always wondered about the non natural stuff. Can a tire, milk carton, or any other inon-living object be fossilised over billions of years? Imagine finding a fossil of a car or house (Which in theory if made of wood, it could become a fossil). Furniture anyone?

In the case of the milk carton and other plastics, they won't fossilize but hardly need to be, they'll last pretty much forever on their own.

[CoyoteNature]

Maybe maybe not depends on how long from the hypothetical end to the discovery, bear in mind we don't have a clear idea of how many species there were of dinosaurs considering many of them were probably not fossilized, we only have a clear idea of the fossilized remnants, and a reasonable extrapolation from what that requires.

Plus the longer and longer of a period leads to progressively more chance the actual fossil evidence is elliminated by natural forces.


Still there is as others have mentioned plastics, then there's the stuff we still have on the moon, possible radionucleides that wouldn't be there naturally, possible fossilization I think also, depending on the conditions of our hypothetical end.

Unless its billions of years, then there wouldn't be any fossils left at all, you know what with the Sun going red giant and all.

[Maraxus]

Out of curiosity, about how long would a glass bottle exist before disintegrating?

[darthdavid]

Out of curiosity, about how long would a glass bottle exist before disintegrating?

Depends. I can't think of that many chemical processes to destroy glass, mostly it would be how much moment happened where it was entrapped and how fast it would get ground up and scattered. So, a looong time in most places.